Andhra Pradesh - Visakhapatnam   

Some food for thought this!

The `office of profit' issue has triggered off interesting discussions and Praja Spandana president and a former officer of the Indian Economic Service C.S. Rao is quick to come out with some interesting suggestions.

Chief among them are that no MP or MLA should hold any other office of profit. And in case a member, as was the case with AICC president Sonia Gandhi who resigned in mid-term, it should be a statutory obligation to refund to the Government all salaries/perks estimated in monetary terms with the prevailing bank interest before they decide to contest similar office. Ms. Gandhi had openly declared she would contest again from Rae Bareily and byelection involves wasteful expenditure to the exchequer, he argues.

"In the case of apprentice employees, the Government recovers their stipend when they leave before expiry of agreement. When such is the case, why not the Government do the same thing in the case of our MLAs and MPs also?" he asks.

Also, the member who resigns in mid-term should not be allowed to contest in the byelection that ensued since it was a voluntary decision, he opines.

Another suggestion was that no member should contest from more than one constituency, as it would place additional burden on the Government, Mr. Rao points out.

Platform number one of the Visakhapatnam railway station, which receives all-important trains, is always a hub of activity. On Tuesday, it turned out to be an altogether exciting scene. The third one-day match was into its last few overs when the Ratnachal Express from Vijayawada arrived.

A good number of people getting off the train and boarding it suddenly saw an opportunity to c(w)atch the action on the TV sets on the platform. Yuvraj Singh was at his explosive best and Suresh Raina was playing a perfect foil to him. At all the TV sets, a large number of people gathered and some comfortably seated themselves watching the batting fireworks of the duo. Some of the passengers who came to catch the train were also so absorbed in the match that they hardly noticed the train departing. Some had to run to board the train. One had to pay the price for some "matchless'' moments.

With the onset of summer, the excise officials are heaving a sigh of relief for more than one reason. They can relax now after slogging it out to achieve target set for just concluded financial year.

Now pushing ahead with sales is not a problem as far as urban areas, particularly Visakhapatnam is concerned. To beat the heat, tipplers will prefer to quench their thirst with chilled beer bottle containing 650 ml. one after another. The daily sale of beer, which is generally less, has also gone up in the bar and restaurants as well as liquor shops these days.

The excise officials, who insist on IMFL shops to lift more and more stocks to make their job of achieving targets easy, are amused to find sudden increase in demand for beer.

Prabhakkar Sharma, G.V. Prasada Sarma and Santosh Patnaik

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Some food for thought this!

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